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ANTOINE ALBEAU: NEW CHAPTER

Right before the final PWA slalom event of 2022 in Japan, twenty-five-time world champion, Antoine Albeau, announced that he was retiring from PWA competition. After thirty years on tour, loaded with so many victories and memories, Albeau decided it was time to hang up his PWA harness and move onto a new chapter in his windsurfing life. John Carter caught up with Antoine to chat about his amazing career.

WORDS – Antoine Albeau // PHOTOS – John Carter / pwaworldtour.com

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Early days

I started windsurfing when I was very young, because my dad had a windsurf school where we live at Île de Ré on the west coast of France. He opened the school in 1972 just when windsurfing came along. I was born on June the 17^th 1972 and I started windsurfing when I was five! When I learned, the gear was not really that good for kids. The equipment was hard enough for adults to learn on. I think when I was ten or eleven, I did my first competitions at my home spot. Every weekend in the summer we had events. I was national champion in the under fourteen category, I think that was in 1986. I then went to a sports school in La Rochelle which did sailing and watersports tuition. I was training in the Olympic discipline at the time. On the side I was also sailing on funboards. By the time I was nineteen I turned professional as a windsurfer. I think when I was 18, I sailed 315 days out of the year and I used to take notes of every session over thirty minutes!

My first PWA event was in 1992 in Almanarre, France. After that I went to Aruba, Holland and Sylt. I won one round of slalom in Aruba in front of Bjorn! I think you can find this race on YouTube! My first world title was at the IFCA event in Denmark in 1994. I won slalom, course racing and the overall that year, so that was three world titles. My first world title in the PWA was in freestyle in 2001! I was good at playing around with the sail and I was lighter than I am now. I had an epic final in Gran Canaria against Matt Pritchard to win the title. There were a few years when slalom stopped, I think between 2001 to 2005 or so.

When slalom came back, I won the title many times in a row from 2006 to 2015 aside from 2011 when Bjorn won. In 2016 Matteo Iachino won it, but I won again in 2017 and 2018 before Pierre won in 2019! Back in the 90s I was also doing quite well. In 1996-7 I think I was in the top five in almost every event.

Money talks

Back in those days it was all open with the gear so a lot of it was about money. There was a lot of cash in the industry and the guys at the top could afford the very best equipment and could carry around more boards and sails than the new guys on tour. Until you had the backing it was hard to compete. Bjorn had all custom gear, plus he was an amazing sailor, so he dominated at the time. It was not possible for me to compete with that because I was just starting out and did not have the budget. I started getting special gear when I signed up with Neil Pryde in 1997. That is when I started having custom boards and sails. I have been on the Neil Pryde team for 26 years!

Back in those days, every day it was windy I would sail. I was spending a lot of time in Maui and New Caledonia at the time. I was sailing over 320 days a year, maybe more. In Maui it is nearly always windy, so I was training and sailing every single day I was there.

When I first started competing there were a lot of very high-level French sailors as well as Dunkerbeck and Robby Naish. There was Robert Teriitehau, Fabien Pendle, Eric Thieme, and Patrice Belbeoch who were all ahead of me to start with. I was a little bit behind them. I made the top ten, but they were all ahead of me. After many years I was starting to become the top French sailor. That is when I started competing with Bjorn and Robby!

Experience

To move up the rankings it was all about experience and the amount of hours you were sailing. You also needed to be able to manage the stress and the mental side. When you are first on the slalom course with Dunkerbeck hot on your heels it is not easy mentally. You could not afford to make any mistakes to finish first. There was also a lot of stress before the start and off the water. We saw a lot of riders over the years that were really good, but could not deal with this. From 2006 I hit the top and won every year aside from 2011 and 2016 right through to 2018. The year Bjorn came back in 2011, I had a problem because he was a little bit faster. I think that year maybe my gear was not the best. Bjorn was very well tuned up and was flying. I was fighting with him, but he was winning. That year Ben van der Steen was fighting as well and came third. He was a little bit behind our level.

After 2011 Bjorn was still there, but I dominated the next era. There was Micah Buzianis, Finian Maynard and Arnon Dagan. I think at that time I was the best guy. In the pack behind there was not one stand out guy that was fighting with me. There were many guys fighting for the second place but there was no one in particular. Maybe I was lucky at the time. I was the best guy and there was not one stand out that was fighting for the first place with me. It was still not an easy time to stay at the top. There were a lot of fights. I had to stay focused all the time. There was always tough competition even though I was still winning.

Matteo Iachino and Pierre Mortefon were the next generation to challenge me from around 2016 onwards. The generation of Arnon and Finian were still there also. I remember when Matteo started competing. He was there but I didn’t feel he would ever be a major threat. Then one year he just rose to the top and from then we were fighting together all the time for the title.

Respect

I had a few problems with Pierre because his temperament meant he does not really like the guys he is fighting with. I felt he had no respect towards me compared to Matteo. I could feel Matteo had a lot of respect for what I had achieved. I think when you are at the top it is very important to respect the other guys. I had won a lot already and had a long career when they started fighting with me. I always respected Bjorn for instance. He was leading for so many years. You cannot erase what he did. I don’t think Pierre respected me like this. We argued a few times on the water and on the beach. This never happened with Matteo. We had that epic slalom in Fuerteventura where we were racing for the event victory. It was a fair race. I could have fallen but in the end he crashed. He was cool with that as it was fair racing, so I think he has a lot of respect for me.

High winds

I think my strength has always been in high winds, but I managed to adapt and be competitive in light winds also. There was one year where we only had four events and they were all kind of light winds. I was sailing all the time on a 9.5m. I was still winning in these conditions. I could adapt myself to the conditions that we had to race in. I managed to be competitive in all conditions although I excelled in high wind locations.

Mindset

I never worked with a mental or psychological coach at all. I know a lot of modern sportspeople work on the mental side a lot these days. I never did that. I think my brain was just made for that type of pressure. I was lucky to be able to stay focused and keep calm mentally. For sure I had some stress but a lot of the game is managing that and keeping your head space clear so you can make the correct decisions on the racecourse. I could manage my stress.

Temper

When I was young, I got angry a few times and threw my gear. I learned that when you start breaking your gear, that is just going to make things worse. You will be in a bad position afterwards as you have to get it repaired. I stopped doing this and just preferred to be angry with myself. In Israel in 2020 I lost it. I was really pissed off because I had been through a stressful period while I was building my house. The house took so much time, I spent three winters hardly going on the water. I did not have so much time to train. Prior to the event, I think I spent three or four months without going in the water. I arrived there in Israel right after setting up my centre also. I was physically tired. When the competition started, I could see that I was competitive and could fight for the podium. They didn’t wait for me for one of the finals because I had gone to change my equipment, I was very angry. They were saying that I was relaxing on the beach, while I was actually changing to my slalom gear from the foil, and I could not get off the beach because it was offshore. They did not wait for me. I was stuck on the beach and in my mind, I was right to be angry. I knew I was in the fight for the top and that just sent me over the edge. Because of this decision I lost everything.

PWA retirement

I did not quit because of the change in PWA to foil and fin racing combined. I like foiling and I think I am fast on the foil as well. I wanted to stop racing for the past two years. Covid kind of messed up my plans and made it very difficult for racers and sponsorship. At the end of 2020 I had no sponsors. Neil Pryde and JP did not sign me. I was ready to sign but when Covid came a lot of budgets were changed. March was the moment to sign, and everything was up in the air.

The tour and all events were put on hold. In July I had an offer to have free equipment. I did not want to sign a contract just for equipment. I did what I could promotion wise during this time. In 2021 I saw there was not so many events, so I decided to continue. When 2022 came, I had already decided at the end of the season I would stop racing on the PWA. The time was right for me. I am not stopping windsurfing; I am just finishing racing on the PWA tour.

Goals

I want to work on my Zephir Project a lot (speed sailing) and race at all of the Défi Wind events. I think next year we will have four or five events. I think it is good promotion for windsurfing and we are going to new destinations as well. I want to race in the speed championships as well. Obviously, I want to spend more time with my family and be able to look after my centre also. It will be amazing to spend more time with my wife Paola as well as my two sons Alani and Adriel.

I don’t know if I will miss the buzz of competing on the PWA. I think I will, but I had so many great years that I think I have done my time. I know as a sportsman that if I am not really at the top anymore it will not be the same. It is not good to compete like this. At the moment I am just at the level that is not enough to be in the top five. I don’t like to finish outside the top five. I am there to win normally! I want to take more time next year to train a lot. I would like to go on the water more again. I want to tune my gear better. I want to go fast again. I would like to be fast at all those long-distance races. That would be super nice for me.

I did not sail that much the past few years because I was building my house That took priority. Even in Sylt this year I was still discovering things about my gear. I sailed about five times before Sylt. I did not really know my equipment that well when I started racing there. I just was not tuned up like I would have been a few years ago. In Japan it was a bit better. I took a bit more time to train. I was much better there. It was just not good on the first and last day where I could not plane in the light conditions. I think I could have fought to be in the top five if it had been windy all the time.

Secrets of success

In the end there is no secret to my success. You are either made for it or not! I think I did the sport that I was made for. I think I was made for windsurfing. Once I started winning it was very hard for me. Mentally in the off season it was very difficult as there was so much pressure going into the next season. You are the guy that everyone wants to beat. I remember in January of a new season feeling stressed, wondering if I was able to win again. There was so much work with all the equipment and training to prepare for a season to make sure you are going to be the fastest guy on the water. It was really hard with that pressure as the guy to beat. All sports are like this. You need to be really strong mentally. You also need to maintain your motivation to continue when the only way is down.

I was also doing all the disciplines for a lot of my career. In 2001 I won in Formula, and I was also world champion in Freestyle. If you do more disciplines that can take away from your main focus. You might not win the discipline that you are supposed to because you are spending time with another training etc. I was doing all the disciplines and actually doing well in all of them.

SPEED

I wanted to go to Lüderitz this year, but we had the event in Japan over the same dates. In Lüderitz you need to go for the whole month. You can go for two weeks, but that might risk missing that one epic day. You can’t miss the best day. This year the strongest winds were right at the end of the window. You have to be there. I don’t want to spend a lot of money for nothing.

I already have the speed record when I broke it on the 1^st of November 2015 with a speed of 53.27 knots. I actually did 15 runs over 52 knots and nine over 53 that day! Now I want to break the record with the Zephir Project. We are looking for a big sponsor. I won’t be on the fin; it will be something different. It will be something half and half! We have a few ideas, but we need an engineer to work on our concepts. We could not do the Zephir Project in Lüderitz as it is too short and shallow there. If I am going 120 km/h I will have a problem to stop at the end of the run. If I go even faster, it would be impossible to stop. We will do it in the sea, in the open ocean. We want to beat the record for 500 metres and the nautical mile. You need to have the runs validated also so it is tricky to organize. There are only two places where you can do this, Lüderitz and La Palme in the south of France. It is really important to keep La Palme open. Currently the speed record over 500 metres is in the hands of Paul Larsen and Sailrocket 2 at 65.45 knots, I want to go over 66 Knots!

Rivals

There are a lot of guys I respect over the years that I have competed against. I had some great races and seasons against Bjorn, Patrice Belbeoch and Micah Buzianis were also great competitors. Finian Maynard and Arnon Dagan I respect as well. I was fighting a lot with them also. More recently, Matteo and I have had many great battles. All those guys have been fun to race with over the years. There are a lot of great memories there. There have also been a lot of talented racers that came and went. Guys like the Swedish racer Christoffer Rappe. He was a very talented racer and at the top back around 2005. He was really good at that time but then he just quit to go and study. He was one of the best riders in the world. To have a career in windsurfing is really tough. I was lucky, I had great sponsors and I was winning a lot of races. This permitted me to stay in the game. If you see my sails, there is not one sticker on there that I don’t get paid for. I am now supported by sponsors from my local area.

Trophies

They are everywhere! I have some in my old house and some in my new house. There are a few in my garage. You should see in my dad’s house! I have so many other trophies from other events as well as the PWA ones.

The new generation

I was not surprised that Maciek won the title. I saw him in 2020 when I went to Tenerife to train. I saw that there was a new generation coming. They are not new, but they have improved a lot through hard work. Guys like Maciek and Enrico Marotti, they are not that old yet and they are the new contenders for the title. They were there already, very fast and hungry to win. Because of Covid they could not show how much they had improved to the world. There were no events to show their level. I think there were two events, but if you didn’t do well in one then you are dead for the year. I thought Bruno Martini would be up there in the top three also this year. Maciek managed to pull it off somehow. In Sylt he almost won the event, then in Japan he was sailing very well also. I was happy that he won because he deserved it. The last three years he was working very hard. I saw that and I think if you work a lot, you deserve it. I did not think Matteo was at the same level as when I saw him in Tenerife, I didn’t think he was that fast. But he is an amazing sailor, so he managed to get level with Maciek. When I heard they were on equal points I did not know who I wanted to win.

Sacrifice   

To be a world champion you have to make a lot of sacrifices. You need to give your whole life to the sport. When I started competing, I lost all my friends at home. I was still in contact, but I had no time to stay in touch. I lost all of my school friends during the first years. You lose those relationships when you are away so much. I did not have time. Back in those days there was no mobile phones or internet either! Now it is a bit easier. Three or four years passed where I did not talk to my best friend. Back then I was travelling all year. I was barely at home. It was like that for about fifteen years. I was lucky that my parents helped me a lot with all of my paperwork and to manage things at home. At least I did not have to think about those things thanks to my mum.

Memorable moments

There have been so many amazing times over the past thirty years. I missed a few victories when I was fighting against Bjorn. There were a few races where I won the title in the last race of the season at the last event, like in Noumea against Cyril Moussilmani and I had another one against Matteo also. One year I won the title in Fuerteventura and there were still two events to go in Turkey and Sylt, but I had won already. I almost won two more titles. I lost the last race to Wojtek in Brazil in Formula, which cost me the title by 0.7 points. I also lost a title by 0.3 against Kevin Pritchard on the last race in Sylt. Those margins were nothing. I still have twenty-five titles. I even scored a fifth place in the Aloha Classic one year where I beat Dave Kalama and Josh Stone and I won the Super X discipline also!

I feel like I am not retiring from windsurfing, but just entering a new chapter of my career. I feel in good shape, and I know I can still race well and do some fast speeds. I want to go on the water, and I want to go fast.